Medical Marijuana: Increased Applicants In Colorado Lead Law Enforcement To Questions Pot Sources

The Denver Post:

Demand for medical marijuana in Colorado has grown so fast in the past few months that it has outstripped the production of legal "grow" operations and is now probably being supplied by international drug cartels, say some local sheriffs and agents from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.

And as dispensaries proliferate throughout the state, police and lawyers say they are worried about the peripheral crime rising around the shops intended to function as pharmacies, selling medical marijuana prescribed to people who suffer one of eight conditions, ranging from chronic pain to glaucoma.

Read the whole story: The Denver Post

Comments

[RevRayGreen]

What a joke. The only cartel who profits off MEDICAL MARIJUANA are law enforcement, lawyers, corrections workers.

[Surekha]

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[Nicon]

Lazy sonsabitches! Medical Marijuana is saving lives in Colorado, Producing legal revenue to small local owned business all around Colorado. The remaining black market for marijuana still exists, and i am sure some of it is cartel grown Marijuana, but not in the Medical Marijuana community.

[Chaucea]

Meanwhile, you have the Grossly Unenlightened Greeley City Council making very uneducated and fear-mongered decisions:
"Greeley City Council ends dispensary buzz, votes against medical marijuana shops"
http://www.greeleytribune.com/article/20091021/NEWS/910219999/1002/NONE&parentprofile=1001

[MrSupersilver]

What a crock of BS. This story is nothing but propaganda put out by the prison-industrial complex. I very highly doubt that 'international drug cartels' are smuggling high potency marijuana into the united states. That stuff smells very strong and the way cartels operate is they try to hide and conceal as much as they can and that would completely ruin the quality of the marijuana. I doubt they are dispensing mexican brick weed that smells like a gas can ton cancer patients at these colorado clinics.

These cops just dont realize how much of a black market there was and now that the fed has essentialy decriminalized marijuana laws and left it up to states to define their own laws, many guerrilla growers are wanting to go legit.

[stevebest]

there is no way i live in denver and the dispencaries dont have any brick, the genetics are all labled and if you ask they will tell you every manner of its growth. most of them wont even use baggies because it damages the buds. they didnt visit a single location or ask anyone other than the dea. i am really interested to see where the story came from was it the paper contacting the dea for a potential story or was it the dea calling the paper to advance their agenda.

[KarateKid]

Mexican cartels don't smuggle high grade pot, they grow it right here in the US of A. Didn't you read about the fire in, I think it was Santa Barbara area, started by a pot farm run by the cartel.

Also, in California, card members also grow their own legally. They have to adhere to a 5 x 5 plot, but I don't think it's enforced and I know one person who stopped working to grow full time and he sells it to the pot stores in the Bay Area and makes $75k tax free. The law is a joke; they might as well legalize it and regulate it. This half _assed approach is so full of loopholes.

[Nicon]

Your mixing and matching facts bud. The 5 X5 rule is upcoming in the 2010 election. and because there are cartel grow opps in the US it does not mean they stopped boarder runs. Check the data, were sezing more pot at the boarder than ever.

Legalization would solve all these problems, Marijuana never harmed a soul, prohibition is killing people daily.

[stevebest]

this story is a joke, complety baseless. when they made the 6 plants per patients rule it was because that was plenty any more would be used nefariosly, now the only claim that the cartel is involved is that there is no way demand could be met with only 6 plants. I would assume that the dea is smart enough to tell the difference between the mexibrick and the high quality available at the dispencary. If the dea really thinks 6 plants isnt enough then why are they so resistant to raising the number of plants, and why isnt pfizer limited in the amount they can produce, why doesnt pfizer have to have patients sign on with them before they can produce a drug. This story was writen off one phone call to the dea no investigation no need for facts just promote their agenda, thats why their paper went out of business and their website isnt worth reading.

[KarateKid]

They don't _smuggle it; they grow it right here in the USA. Didn't you read about the fire in the Santa Barbara area? It was caused by a Mexican _pot farm. They also use forested areas throughout the West.

[RevRayGreen]

U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration is very dillusional.